


Out of Stock

by jennandblitz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Deaf Characters - Freeform, Deaf!Lily, Everyone is adorable, Fluff, HoH!Harry, I'm Sorry, It's all fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, bookshops, deaf!Remus, it's tooth rotting really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 17:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19182880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennandblitz/pseuds/jennandblitz
Summary: Rounding the corner between the bookshelves Remus saw a young, bespectacled boy with the wildest hair Remus thought he’d ever seen on a child, with what, objectively, might’ve been the most handsome man Remus had ever set eyes on crouched beside him. Remus was only stunned by an elegant sweep of black hair for a moment before he noticed the man was signing to the boy. He was a little slow and stuttered in his movements, lacking the kind of fluidity that appeared when one signed as their first language.Remus' otherwise quiet trip to the bookstore takes an unexpected turn.





	Out of Stock

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my ever-inspiring bestie Purplechimera for this prompt and signing assistance. I've been wanting to write some form of Deaf Wolfstar for so long but never quite knew what, so please accept this fluffy meet-cute! And, as ever, props to the WDS for relentless cheerleading.

Remus didn’t make a habit of trekking into the city—online shopping had been invented for a reason—but there was a collector’s edition of _A Study In Scarlet_ at the shop in the city centre and that called to him a bit too much to pass up. The bus ride in was uneventful, passed by staring alternately out the window to the passing suburbs, or at his phone, where his favourite Discord server was going wild, as usual.

ScarletDoe, one of the more active members of the local Deaf/HoH group, had been ranting earlier about how her HoH son had been treated awfully in a restaurant the night before, and how she categorically, absolutely wouldn’t let them rest until their pig of a manager changed his mind. Everyone had agreed to boycott the restaurant in solidarity, and a few of them, headed by Doe’s husband, had started a Facebook campaign. Remus, who tried mostly to stay out of drama, thought privately that Doe was pretty terrifying, and if he ever met her in real life he’d hope to never piss her off, but she was right, that restaurant manager _was_ a dick.

Navigating the crowds, Remus found his way through to the bookstore. The crowd around him was thrumming with a sort of low-level hum that made his ears feel itchy. He hated having his aids in most of the time, only putting them in for work, or when he decided to venture outside of his flat, and whilst they were pretty decent, they weren’t the most comfortable. Still, they were good for emergencies, he supposed. Especially when out and about, the Bluetooth capabilities meant he could indulge his recent foray into funk music—what, he couldn’t help it if they had the best bass lines, and they were the easiest to hear—indulged by his father.

Remus managed to resist the temptation of the Classics Corner at the bookshop, usually powerless against those pretty redesigned front covers, and went to pick up the book he was there for. Perhaps he’d go to the cafe in the shop before he checked out; he may as well make the most of a trip on the bus. Christ, his life was exciting wasn’t it.

Rounding the corner between the bookshelves Remus saw a young, bespectacled boy with the wildest hair Remus thought he’d ever seen on a child, with what, objectively, might’ve been the most handsome man Remus had ever set eyes on crouched beside him. Remus was only stunned by an elegant sweep of black hair for a moment before he noticed the man was signing to the boy. He was a little slow and stuttered in his movements, lacking the kind of fluidity that appeared when one signed as their first language.

“I know,” the handsome man signed, looking entirely pained. There was a gesture Remus didn’t recognise—maybe a name—before he carried on. “It’s not…here—” The man pulled a face as he stood up and ran a hand through his hair, flustered by something. Remus tried not to track the movement of his long fingers through those waves of black and the way it pulled up the hem of his shirt just a little. “We’ll find your Mum and Dad, okay?”

The boy pouted. His signing was much more fluent, heedless of what looked to be chocolate sauce on his fingers. “But the computer said they had it here—” another gesture Remus didn’t recognise— “where is it?”

Remus took a deep breath before walking over. He wasn’t usually the kind of person to help random strangers, but they were in a bookstore—his favourite place—and the kid looked like he was about to seriously throw down, and Remus would really rather he didn’t; his ears were irritated enough as it was. Remus stepped awkwardly into the man’s field of vision—blimey, he really was gorgeous up close, wasn’t he? All sharp features and sharp grey eyes—and lifted his hand in a greeting.

“Hi,” he signed, suddenly realising he had no idea whether he was actually intruding or not but now here he was and he couldn’t well just run away. “Can I help?”

The man stared at him for a second, a frown flickering across his brow, before he smiled brightly. “Hello,” he signed back, haltingly. “Please. I can’t remember the sign—” he huffed again, blowing a tuft of hair out of his face, clearly exasperated. He said something out loud, but Remus didn’t quite catch it. His lip reading skills were quite good, but he was distracted for a moment by the little silver ball of a piercing above the man’s cupid’s bow.

Remus grabbed his hand to stop his aimless gesticulating. “Say again slower, please. I can lip read,” he said out loud, trying not to stumble over his words or flush entirely crimson at his no-doubt slurred words. It wasn’t exactly a lie, he _could_ lip read, just not flawlessly though. The movies were to blame for that. Usually it was a one in three success rate for words, if he _really_ concentrated.

The man paused, staring at Remus’ face for a moment. Wow, he must’ve gone really red for the way the man was staring at him. “The book—out of stock, there—error in the—”

Remus nodded, shaking his head slightly to try and stave off the headache that always came with the concentration of lip reading. “Okay,” Remus signed. “Hold on.” He crouched down next to the boy and smiled. “Hi,” he signed again, fingers dancing. “I’m R-E-M-U-S—” then his name sign, a half-moon with forefinger and thumb— “What’s your name?”

“Hi, I’m H-A-R-R-Y.” The boy, Harry, gave a name sign that looked something like a lion’s mane, Remus supposed, fingers splayed around his face. There was another name sign Remus didn’t recognise, like a star maybe, before he continued— “says my book isn’t here. But the computer at home said it would be.”

Remus gave the sign he didn’t recognise back to Harry, frowning as he did. “Who?”

Besides him, the man crouched again and smiled, ducking to get his attention. “I’m S-I-R-I-U-S—” the name sign again, ah Remus understood now— “like the star. I’m Harry’s godfather.”

“Ah. Sirius says your book is out of stock.” Remus glanced to Sirius and hide a smile as the frustration bloomed across Sirius’ face, one hand coming up to rub distractedly over his eyes.

“Out—stock! _That’s_ —fucking sign!” Sirius exclaimed out loud, Remus just picking up both his speech and lip movements. He hid a chuckle of laughter into his shoulder at Sirius’ frustration and smiled back at Harry.

“Oh.” Harry looked between Remus and Sirius. “So it’s not here?”

“No. The computer was wrong, they thought the book was here but it isn’t.” Remus smiled reassuringly, wishing his signing had been that fluent when he was Harry’s age.

“When will it be here?” Harry questioned, relentless in the way that only children were.

Remus shrugged. “I don’t know. We can go and ask, maybe.”

Just as Remus stood up, Sirius put a hand on his arm. His grey eyes were sincere as he signed. “Thank you.”

Remus shivered, and it wasn’t the air conditioning in the shop. Sirius really was handsome. In a way Remus had never really encountered before, in a way that made his insides clench sweetly and his face grow warm and his usually sure fingers quiver a little.

Just then a flurry of movement came through the shelves. Remus’ moment with Sirius was shattered as he turned and saw a shock of red hair he would’ve recognised instantly if it wasn’t for the sheer strangeness of seeing one of his online friends in real life.

“Doe…” Remus signed, turning to see ScarletDoe in the flesh. She was a little shorter than Remus imagined, but still as fiery and terrifying. “Hi.” So Harry must be her son, Remus thought as his eyes flickered to the tall man next to Doe who looked a _lot_ like Harry.

Doe grinned instantly, hugging Remus tightly around the middle. “Moony!” She said as she pulled back, her hands flying through the signs. “How are you? How weird to see you here!” She looked down to Harry, then to Sirius, and back to Remus. “Everything okay?”

Remus nodded shyly, a little blown over by the hug and the whirlwind of Doe’s presence. He wasn’t sure whether to jump in and explain for a moment or whether to leave that to Sirius, but Doe was looking at him expectantly.

“Yeah. I came across Harry and Sirius… Sirius couldn’t remember the sign for _out of stock_ , I don’t think, and Harry didn’t understand. So I asked if I could help.”

Doe laughed, giving Sirius a hot look. “How long have you known me, Sirius? And you still get flustered.” Remus noticed the tall man terping for Doe, laughing along with her. Sirius flushed red and gave her a rude hand gesture back, but he was grinning and _boy_ , did a grin look good on him.

“Moony, this is my husband, J-A-M-E-S—” James’ sign name was Doe’s fingers all splayed out in her hair, a remarkably good approximation of James’ own wild hair— “James, this is Moony—oh, I don’t know your real name! Mine is L-I-L-Y.”

Remus smiled, shrugging one shoulder. Lily’s sign name was still the same, even now it was Lily and not ScarletDoe. It was so surreal to see her out in the real world. They—well—hung out on Google Hangouts a lot, so Remus knew her well enough, but in the flesh was a different matter. “R-E-M-U-S,” he signed back obligingly.

At the corner of his vision James was still speaking to Sirius, no doubt translating their conversation when Sirius couldn’t quite keep up. Doe—Lily—watched Remus’ eye-line and smiled, nudging him. “That’s Sirius, James’ best friend and Harry’s godfather. He’s been away with work for the last three years, in the US, so he’s out of practice signing, but he’s re-learning for Harry and I.”

“Oh, right.” Remus looked back to Sirius just in time to see the shape of his own name on the other man’s lips. That piercing above his top lip was so strangely… alluring. He looked back to Lily to see her grinning ear to ear. She had a strange look on her face Remus couldn’t quite place, and with the fire in her eyes, he wasn’t sure he _wanted_ to place it.

“He’s single,” Lily said, nudging into Remus with her shoulder. Ah, so that was it.

Remus pulled a face and hit Lily lightly on the arm, laughing to cover for just how relieved he felt at that piece of information. His gaze slid over to Sirius again, who was talking with James and Harry now.

“Come on,” Lily said, sidling over to her husband and son, signing quickly to Harry. “Let’s go find out when they’ll have your book. And then maybe, we can go for a brownie in the cafe.”

Harry clapped his hands excitedly and ran off towards the till, letting James and Lily trail after him, laughing. Remus watched them go for a moment, also smiling, as if it were impossible _not_ to smile around the three of them. But then, _ah_ , breath catching in his throat, Sirius was still beside him, and Remus turned to see Sirius watching him. He was smiling softly, his sharp grey eyes flickering all over Remus’ face.

“How about,” he signed, and Remus couldn’t help but smile, it was painfully endearing to see the way he formed every sign. “You let me buy you a coffee and a cake in the cafe.”

Remus rolled his eyes and bit his lip to try and stifle his grin. “You know the sign for that?”

Sirius laughed. Remus felt it on the air between them more than he heard it. “I know how to ask for a date with a gorgeous man.”

“A date?” Remus couldn’t stop grinning like a maniac as they meandered towards the cafe.

“Yep. And maybe you can help me brush up on all the other words I don’t know.” Sirius gave him a cheeky little grin and nudged his shoulder into Remus’.

“Okay. Let’s hope the cakes aren’t out of stock, yeah?”


End file.
